Don't know how many of you guys out there follow the news on overseas farming, but Australian dairy farmers are copping it again. Real milk prices have only gone up by about 8 AUc per litre in the last 12 years, while production costs have gone up by about 5 times that amount per litre if not more. Now Coles, one of the major supermarket chains, has cut milk prices in their supermarket to get more customers through the door; Woolworths, despite having their spokesman coming out saying that the new pricing schedule was 'unsustainable' and that 'the cost cut will be passed on to the farm gate' are now looking like they will do the same.

How do we, as primary producers, raise awareness in the general public about the importance of of food producers? Everyone needs to eat, but nobody wants to pay what their food is worth!! I cant see all the city dwellers, when through ignorance they have driven a large proportion of farmers out of business, saying to themselves " oh well, I guess I need to put in a vegie garden and get a house cow" even if they had the space to do it. .

And how can people not see that the inevitable result of these new pricing schedules of own brand products will be that food prices go up as smaller producers and marginal producers go out of business? It is the simple law of supply and demand; as I said before, people still need to eat but there will be less and less primary producers out their growing their food for them if we don't all take a stand and soon

This has become the "norm" worldwide, not only do input costs rise at a greater rate than farmgate prices, but the retailers manage to increase their retail prices at a greater rate than the wholesale price. Adapting to low cost production needs a whole paradigm shift in your production system. Milk off grass while the obvious cost cutting system, needs a change in genetics, low input/ low output can work, but every environment requires a different approach, there are many grass based dairy herds, which can be used to source genetics from, hybridising different grass based herds can bring in better results through heterosis, crossing with native strains to develop a composite might be an option in challenging environments such as tropical heat and diseases. I know of several units both in the tropics and the UK which practice once a day milking, and raise beef cross calves with their own for extra income, and to prevent mastitis in a single milking system.